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Owner description: Big Thunder Gold Mine has an original tour which lasts 45-55 minutes and was founded in 1892. You see the largest display of mining equipment in the Black Hills and learn the history of the gold rush in 1876. We have two forms of panning: one is our commercial panning right on site. Guides will demonstrate theskill of panning, no time limit and we guarentee you will find gold. We also have claim panning where you will pan directly our of the creek 4 miles down the road on Forest Service property. Those exist in 4 hour trips.

Thanks to our amazing tour guide, David, for the super informative and interesting tour. He had my 5 and 7 year old boys eager to learn more! There were about 25-30 people in our group tour and amazingly David could talk to all of us by name! A great tour guide is more than half the actual tour itself.And the gold panning is a must for the kiddos. They loved it :)

Date of experience: June 2014

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Ask kgarrett83 about Big Thunder Gold Mine

1 Thank kgarrett83

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.

The mine itself and display of old mining instruments was interesting and enough to make the tour bearable. Other than that, the guide was terrible and the whole setup seemed gimmicky. What could have been a 10-20 minutes well put together tour turned into an hour of rambling and attempts at getting a chuckle out of the group. At some points I considered leaving the tour to salvage the rest of the afternoon. I only paid half price with a coupon and even that seemed to be too much for what was given in return. I would avoid the tour if you come this way.

Date of experience: July 2014

Ask logans24 about Big Thunder Gold Mine

2 Thank logans24

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.

We didn't do the gold mine tour due to time and cost. We did pan for gold; it was okay to kind of get the experience. Got some gold flakes and some other pretty rocks. Just be patient and keep searching the troughs.

Date of experience: July 2014

Ask kennadeau about Big Thunder Gold Mine

Thank kennadeau

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.

We had some free time after Mt.Rushmore visit, so planned to do gold panning. The guys are more interested in the mine tour and they chose it. Gold panning will be fun only if you have enough patience to find a gold flake. Its more of kids entertainment. If ou have not done panning before, just try for the different experience.

Date of experience: June 2014

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Ask ShanEsak about Big Thunder Gold Mine

Thank ShanEsak

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.

Find out who your guide will be before you take the tour. The girl we had kept forgetting her memorized lines and we lost interest in no time. I am sure she is trying her best but it's not working. The gold panning was more interesting and kids loved it

Date of experience: July 2014

Ask mmaayyaa about Big Thunder Gold Mine

Thank mmaayyaa

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.